Innumeracy

Published: February 5, 1989

To the Editor:

Three out of four kids appearing in juvenile court are functionally illiterate.

Ninety-nine percent of the spoon-benders, U.F.O. abductees and crystal people are functionally innumerate.

The kids turn to crime because they can't make it in a literate world; the New Agers turn to Shirley MacLaine and L. Ron Hubbard because they can't make it in a 20th-century world. Our problems, from ozone to overpopulation, come from people who can't face facts, won't accept responsibility, and deny cause and effect. Crystals, channeling, creationism and political committees won't solve the problem of hypodermic syringes on the beaches of New Jersey or AIDS in our hospitals.

We need literacy, we need numeracy, we need the intelligent attitude and humor of people like John Allen Paulos. JOHN SHANNON Racine, Wis.